Claude Ake, visiting professor of political science and an internationally renowned Nigerian political scientist and economist, was killed in a plane crash in Nigeria on Nov. 7. The airplane was flying between the cities of Port Harcourt and Lagos when it plunged into a lagoon outside of Lagos. There were no survivors. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.
Professor Ake, 57, had written extensively on political theory, political economy and development studies. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1966 and was appointed assistant professor at Columbia, then visiting professor at the University of Nairobi and the University of Dar es Salaam. He later served as dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Port Harcourt, capital of the Rivers State in southern Nigeria.
He served as consultant for numerous international organizations, including the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. He founded the Centre for Advanced Social Science in Port Harcourt and was its director at the time of his death.
Professor Ake's most recent publication was "Democracy and Development in Africa." His earlier books include "A Political Economy of Nigeria" and "A Political Economy of Africa." His final projects were focused on the roots of violence in Africa, political violence in Nigeria, and concepts of ethnicity.
In addition to being an influential voice in academic circles, Professor Ake worked closely with Ken Saro-Wiwa, the activist executed last year by the Nigerian government for protesting environmental and social injustice in Ogoniland, Nigeria. At the time, Professor Ake resigned from a commission appointed by the Shell Company to study the ecology of the oil-producing Niger Delta in protest over the execution. He continued to be active, though, in efforts to reveal human rights and environmental abuses by the Nigerian government and others in the Ogoniland region.
During his fall semester appointment at Yale, Professor Ake was teaching two courses -- a graduate seminar, "The State In Africa," and an undergraduate lecture course, "Politics and Development in Africa." For the remainder of the semester, Professor David Apter will teach the graduate course and Professor Leonard Wantchekon will teach the undergraduate lecture course.
In the words of Professor David Apter, chair of the Council on African Studies, "Claude Ake was Africa's leading political scientist -- and its most courageous."
Plans for a memorial gathering and conference in honor of Professor Ake will be announced shortly. For further information, contact the Council on African Studies at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies at 432-3436.